


Testing, Testing

by Livelongandfangirling



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Gen, when you're stuck on your WIPs... start another one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-16 05:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16079513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livelongandfangirling/pseuds/Livelongandfangirling
Summary: She's met her new team, now to meet the rest of the paddock. And be the first full time female F1 driver in almost 20 years._______Trying to get back into the swing of writing by writing chapter(s) what I should have included in Life in The Fastlane.Set 2013 Pre-Season Testing





	Testing, Testing

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wasn't going to post this, as it's just a little thing that I've been working on since summer to try and get myself back into writing again, but I stuck this in my drafts a few days ago, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as my laptop died last night taking all of my fic stuff with it.
> 
> So I decided to post this anyway (forgive me if it's terrible) since I'd rather not lose this too. Again, had I planned stuff better this should have been a part of Life In The Fast Lane (which I was thinking of re-writing, but for obvious reasons that's on hold). Ramble over, hope you like it!

_Tuesday 5 th February 2013 – Circuito de Jerez, Spain_

As soon as she’d pulled her car into the nearest available parking space, Seanagh switched off the car engine and let out a nervous sigh. She combed the tips of her fingers through the front parts of her hair, checking her reflection in the rear-view mirror, before she smoothed down the collar of her team shirt and pulled down the sleeves of her sweatshirt.

“Hey, stop fussing” Vanessa sighed from the front passenger seat. She turned her head to look at Seanagh, her long blonde ponytail swishing as she did.

“I’m the first proper female F1 driver for over 20 years, forgive me for being nervous” Seanagh frowned as she looked at her reflection again and pulled her dark hair bobble from her wrist. “The second I walk into the paddock everyone is going to be staring at me okay? Every single person” Seanagh drew out a long shaky sigh and bit down on her lip. "They're all going to get their first impression of me walking towards the motorhome”

“That’s what personal trainers are for” Vanessa gave Seanagh a reassuring smile and patted her driver’s hand. “You and me are sat in a very nice Mercedes company car, and the Formula 1 paddock is that way” Vanessa pointed out of the window, where the turnstile entrance was only just visible in the distance. “You made it Seanagh, because you’re brilliant. So you and me are going to walk into that damn paddock together with this press officer person-”

“Richard” Seanagh butted in. Richard had worked at McLaren since 2010 and had been assigned as Seanagh’s very own press officer.

“We’re going to walk in with Richard with our heads held high. Because that’s what you and me do, okay?” Seanagh took a moment to herself and nodded before she pulled open one of the zip pockets on her team sweatshirt and pulled out her red paddock access pass. She turned it over in her hands and looked at the back, the picture that had been taken at the factory in Woking staring back at her with black text to the left of it.

_Seanagh Palmer_

_Driver_

_Vodafone McLaren Mercedes_

“I really made it” Seanagh sighed with a small smile before hanging the paddock pass around her neck. “What should I do with this?” Seanagh asked digging a hand into her mass of freshly washed dark brown curls.

“We could have matching ponytails again” Vanessa smirked causing Seanagh to chuckle as she picked up the hair bobble that had fallen into her lap and tied her hair into a ponytail that sat on the crown of her head. Seanagh gave her head a quick shake which Vanessa just smiled at. “You look like you”

“Good, if I’ve got the whole paddock looking at me I might as well look like myself right?”

“Absolutely, come on” Vanessa opened the front passenger door after unclipping her seat belt and stepping out into the car park. After another few moments to herself Seanagh did the same.

“Nice cars” Seanagh remarked at the sight of recent plated Mercedes, Ferrari’s and many other brands of sports car. “They didn’t have this in Formula Three” Seanagh pulled her small rucksack from the backseat and shut the car door and locked it. She dropped the car keys to her silver Mercedes in the front pouch of her backpack before swinging it over her left shoulder. “You ready?” Vanessa just nodded as she hung her own paddock pass around her neck and waited until Seanagh was on the other side of the car before falling into step with her.

They walked towards the paddock entrance mainly in silence, making their way through the parked cars. The car park was surprisingly full for half past seven, but Seanagh couldn’t help but notice a small stream of cars heading up to a second reserve car park.

Eventually Seanagh and Vanessa arrived at the large turnstile paddock entrance; there was a huge sign above it that read ‘Welcome to the Formula 1 Paddock’ in huge gold letters on a white background. Below the sign were four silver turnstiles that each had a long silver pole coming out of them that looked to have a small LED screen on it. At each end of the row of turnstiles stood two very large security guards, who were wearing sunglasses even though it wasn’t too bright in Jerez despite segments of blue sky appearing in between the grey clouds. It was however quite chilly, as the two women had pulled their team raincoats out of their bags and quickly pulled them on as a tall man with black hair who was also dressed in McLaren gear approached them both.

“I’ve told them who you are, just in case your passes don’t work” Richard walked forwards as promised and smiled at both women. He too had his grey sweatshirt and silver raincoat zipped up to the base of his chin.

“Richard this is Vanessa my personal trainer, Vanessa this his Richard my new press officer” Seanagh quickly introduced them both, since apparently Richard was set to become part of Seanagh’s own ‘mini team’

“Lovely to meet you Richard” Vanessa smiled brightly and shook Richard’s hand firmly.

“Likewise. You wouldn’t happen to be with Hinsta would you?”

“I certainly am” Vanessa proudly swung her rucksack round showing off the small blue Hinsta keychain attached to one of the zips.

“You’ll fit right in then” Richard chuckled as he led Seanagh and Vanessa towards the turnstiles. He pressed his own paddock pass against one of the blank LED screens and walked through the turnstile after hearing three loud beeps.

“They definitely didn’t have this in Formula Three” Vanessa quietly muttered to Seanagh before approaching one of the turnstiles. Seanagh used the one Richard had just walked through, she pressed her pass against the blank LED screen, that lit up with Seanagh’s name and photograph and emitted three loud beeps in varying pitches. Seanagh pushed her way through the turnstile and suddenly found herself standing on the other side.

She gulped and looked at the huge motorhomes and engineering trucks that sat in parallel rows with a huge gap between them. They all had blacked out windows and Seanagh couldn’t help but feel like behind them were eager pairs of eyes watching Seanagh’s every move. Surprisingly the paddock itself was almost desolate; occasionally people who looked like mechanics would file out of the large motorhomes in small groups heading over towards the garages.

“And you’re from Northampton, right Seanagh?”

“Huh?” Richard addressing Seanagh pulled her out of her motorhome staring induced daze. "Um, yeah that’s right”

“Well it’s nice that we’re all local” Richard smiled politely; he could obviously tell that Seanagh had been struck with terrible first day nerves.

“I wouldn’t call Oxford, Woking and Northampton all within walking distance” Vanessa shot Richard an amused look with a hint of a smirk before she put her hand on Seanagh’s shoulder. “Come on let’s get some tea and breakfast in you, you’ll feel much better”

“You haven’t eaten yet?” Richard asked, sounding slightly concerned for his new driver.

“Too nervous”

“You’ll be fine, you’ve already met Jenson. And you told me you raced against a few of the guys right?” Richard’s tone was very friendly, and reassuring. As if Seanagh was perfectly normal, and hadn’t been the sole talking point of the F1 paddock since her McLaren deal had been announced back in December.

“Yeah, Ricciardo and Vergne mainly. They were the ones who actually spoke to me”

“Ah, they’re good lads. I’m mates with Vergne’s PT actually, he’s from Hinsta too. We both started in 2010” Vanessa and Seanagh both nodded as they took in the names on each of the motorhomes they walked past: Sauber, Williams, Lotus…

“Cherie!” A loud call from someone stopped the trio in their tracks. They all looked around them trying to find where the noise had came from when the person called out again. “Over here mon ami!” Seanagh looked over at a huge, long navy blue motorhome that was on the left side of the paddock. It had a large double door with two long ramps leading up to it. Stood on one of the ramps were two men; one smaller, well built and with light hair, the other taller and was waving at Seanagh excitedly. Both of them were wearing navy blue Toro Rosso polo shirts with the same coloured jackets over them, all covered in white brand logos.

“Speaking of Jev, do you mind?” Seanagh looked up at Richard, who upon seeing the small smile on Seanagh’s face walked Seanagh over to the two men who walked down from the ramp and onto the concrete ground.

“Mon petite!” Jev chuckled and pulled Seanagh into a warm friendly hug. “It’s so good to see you my friend, welcome to Formula One huh? You made it!” The Frenchman looked at Seanagh with a very excited and happy smile.

“Well McLaren were mad enough to sign me so…” Seanagh shrugged, causing Jev to scoff instantly.

“Nonsense!” Jev dropped his hands and placed one of them on the other man’s shoulder. “This is the one who kicked my ass in 2011”

“The winning the first five races one?” The man asked in a deep voice.

“Oui” Jev smiled at Seanagh proudly and winked at her as the second man took a step forward.

“Nice to meet you” He flashed Seanagh a bright smile and extended a tanned arm. “I’m Antti, Jev’s personal trainer” Antti had light brown hair that was slightly messy, and only just hid his light blue eyes. He’d certainly been a lot nicer to Seanagh than a lot of other people had been so Seanagh smiled at him warmly and shook his hand. “It’s nice to see you too Carlton” Antti smirked at Vanessa who rolled her eyes before stepping forward and accepted a brief but friendly hug.

“This is the annoying Finnish one I told you about” Vanessa jibed, which seemed to get a loud chuckle out of both Richard and Jev, much to Antti’s annoyance.

“Oh” Seanagh looked at Antti again, he seemed to be surprisingly tanned for a Finn, but seemed to be nice enough that Seanagh didn’t comment on it.

“Well, well. Look who’s here!” A voice booming out of the main door drew everyone’s attention. It came from another well-built tall man with pale skin and styled blond hair. He too was wearing a dark blue shirt but it was different to the one’s Jev and Antti were wearing. The man smiled at Vanessa as he walked down the wooden ramp.

“Hello H!” Vanessa brightly smiled at the man and accepted another friendly hug before he turned and looked at Seanagh with a very charming smile.

“I’m Heikki”

“Seanagh” She outstretched her hand and got a very strong handshake. “You Hinsta guys really do all know each other”

“Oh yeah, we’re all _best friends_ ” Antti joked as he folded his arms across his chest.

“Word of warning, he’s a bit of an ass” Heikki titled his head in Antti’s direction.

“I am not”

“Only when you’ve had tequila” Vanessa smirked.

“Oh so you’re the one Vanessa went to university with!” A story Vanessa had once told Seanagh suddenly drifted into her mind, it involved a student night out and one of Vanessa’s friends drinking far too much liquor and embarassing themselves in the process. Antti groaned while Heikki and Vanessa both laughed.

“Oh I’ve missed you two” Vanessa smiled at her colleagues and got another hug from them both. “Anyway we should be going”

“Yeah breakfast is getting served right about now” Richard frowned looking at his watch; he had the face of a man that was missing out on some well cooked bacon.

“It was nice to meet you both” Seanagh smiled at Heikki and Antti who both smiled back.

“Good luck with everything”

“Yeah absolutely”

“It was lovely to see you again Cherie” Jev smiled and hugged Seanagh again before lightly kissing her cheek.

“For the record he is the only one that calls me that” Seanagh, Jev and the two Finns all chuckled as two other people emerged from the dark blue motorhome.

“There you all ar- Oh hello” A German accented voice ran though the cold air and Seanagh, who had finally began to feel less stressed and maybe even calm, suddenly tensed up again. Down the ramp walked a man and a woman. The woman was quite petite, roughly Seanagh’s size although not as well built. She had light blond hair pulled into a ponytail and a Red Bull branded jacket zipped up to her chin. Seanagh instantly recognised who the man walking beside her was. He looked to be a few inches taller than Seanagh, with dark blond hair and bright, striking blue eyes. Triple world champion Sebastian Vettel.

“Hello” Seanagh was relieved that her voice sounded normal, albeit slightly nervous. It least it wasn’t a terrified squeak at being stood centimetres away from one of the most famous names in modern Formula 1.

“It’s nice to finally meet you” Sebastian smiled a bright, charming smile and outstretched one of his hands. “Sebastian, but everyone just calls me Seb”

“I’m Seanagh” She smiled and shook Sebastian’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you too” She looked up at the large blue building, suddenly realised that there was a Toro Rosso logo on one side and a Red Bull one on the other. “So you guys share the same building then”

“Red Bull perks” Antti nodded with a small hum. “We should get going Jev, breakfast”

“Oh yes, of course. Are you in the car today?” Jev asked.

“No I’m just observing”

“Me too, there’s this great place we can watch from if you’re free”

“Sure, I’ll let you know if the team let me out the building” Both Jev and Antti chuckled as they headed inside the motorhome. “Speaking of McLaren, I probably shouldn’t keep them waiting much longer”

“Yes, of course. I uh… just wanted to welcome you to the paddock. And wish you luck” Seanagh was taken back by Sebastian’s statement and she took a few moments before replying.

“Thank you, um you too”

“We should get back inside Seb” Heikki patted Seb on the shoulder and walked back up the ramp, with Sebastian slowly following.

“We actually have an open door policy, best not come over so soon but during the next test if you’d like”

“That’d be lovely Britta” Richard smiled at the small blonde woman, who judging by her accent was German as well. “See you guys later” Britta followed Heikki and Sebastian back inside while Vanessa, Seanagh and Richard resumed their walk over to the McLaren motorhome. Seanagh finally let out a very relieved sigh and wiped her free hand across her face.

“I’ve been here ten minutes and I’ve already met a triple World Champion" Seanagh sighed and really wanted Vanessa to fulfil on her tea and breakfast promise.

“And you survived” Vanessa patted Seanagh on the shoulder as the McLaren motorhome finally came into view. Seanagh had only seen it in a few pictures, but the sight of it in person was enough to take her breath away.

It was huge, and at least three stories high on top of a raised foundation. The front was curved and with nothing but reflective windows and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes written in the same shade of rocket red that adorned Seanagh’s team gear.

“Welcome to your new home ladies” Richard sighed with a smile and proudly led them both inside.

 

The grandeur of the McLaren motorhome was matched on the inside as it was on the outside. The ground floor which was home to the main hospitality area looked more like the reception area of a five start hotel than the mobile base of a Formula 1 team.

“There’s three stories, the kitchen and driver rooms are upstairs” Richard pointed to a grey and silver spiral staircase that led up to the first floor. “The top floor is mainly a chill out area, lots of sofas and what have you, Martin’s office is on the first floor as well, and the engineer’s offices are in those two trucks” Richard turned round and pointed out the windows, where two silver trucks had been joined together with a small set of stairs jutting out. “I know the layout is a bit odd but you’ll both know this place like the back of your hand by the time testing’s done” Richard smiled at his new colleagues, who both seemed to be slightly daunted by their surroundings. “Come on I’ll take you upstairs”

“I feel like I’ve walked into a spaceship” Vanessa whispered under her breath as they climbed the spiral stairs. Seanagh said nothing, instead looking at the black floor and grey walls that perfectly matched the décor of the McLaren factory back in Woking. While the ground floor was taken up by white tables and chairs, the first floor had two long tables at either side with a single chair on one side and at least four on the other. There was an oval cut out right in the middle of the floor that was surrounded by glass fencing, allowing people to either look down at the ground floor, or look up at the top floor. Plasma TVs were dotted along the walls as they were on the ground floor, with grey doors slotting themselves in between.

“So over here” Richard started pulling Seanagh out of her daze. “Is your driver room” Seanagh and Vanessa followed Richard over to one of the grey doors that had a small silver plaque right in the middle. Richard opened the door to the small room that still carried the black and grey décor with the very occasional splash of silver and rocket red. “The driver rooms are a fairly decent size, come the European leg of the season it should be better decorated with some pictures of the car, which will be put around the motorhome as well” Seanagh just hummed in response as she looked around the small room; there was a massage table on one side and a sofa on the other, with a table at the far end next to a tiny alcove. “There’s a shower at the back and your overalls arrived just this morning” Richard opened a tall cupboard that was next to the door. Two pairs of Seanagh’s new McLaren overalls hung off coat hangers, with sets of fireproofs stacked on one shelf, with another larger shelf left bare, presumably for Seanagh’s helmets.

“I can give you both a more detailed tour later but we can have breakfast before the engineers meeting”

“That’d be great” Vanessa smiled and Seanagh nodded as they set their bags down and took off their raincoats and followed Richard over to the main catering area where a full breakfast buffet had been laid out: bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs sat alongside omelettes, pastries, fresh fruit and yogurt. Seanagh grabbed a bowl and half filled it with greek yogurt and sprinkled on some fresh berries and banana slices before drizzling it all with honey. She still felt slightly nervous so a light breakfast was all she could stomach for the moment.

Just as Seanagh and Vanessa sat down a man wearing the same shirt as Richard’s came over to the table and placed a hand on the press officer’s shoulder.

“Katie’s still not in yet, food poisoning from the flight over apparently, you’re needed on twitter duty”

“I was supposed to be looking after our new driver, Martin said no exceptions” Richard rolled his eyes and sighed, acknowledging Seanagh with a small title of the head in her direction. Seanagh looked at the man – bald and probably in his early 50s – and tried her best to politely smile through the nerves at him.

“My apologies Miss Palmer-”

“-Seanagh is just fine, and I have raced here before. I doubt Vanessa and me will get lost” Richard nodded with another sigh, before grabbing his coffee and leaving saying he’d see them both again at lunch hour.

“He actually is really nice” Vanessa hummed.

“You say that as if you suddenly don’t trust my judgment” Seanagh teased before finally digging into hear breakfast.

“It’s not your judgement I was worried about… I was prepared for the worst that’s all, based on what you told me about the rest of your junior career” Vanessa paused and took a few mouthfuls of food allowing silence to break over the small table. “Still, Heikki and Antti are good people”

“So’s Jev” Seanagh and Jev almost had a rivalry in the junior categories, but Jev’s constant promotions to higher categories prevented that from being the case.

"So, excluding Jenson and yourself that’s two of twenty drivers saying hello to you”

“You really did have your expectations of everyone here at rock bottom didn’t you?” Seanagh asked her personal trainer not really sounding surprised.

“Just doing my job, looking out for my driver. Refill?”

“Please” Seanagh accepted Vanessa’s offer and passed over her now empty glass of orange juice. As Vanessa walked back over to the buffet table Seanagh looked at her surroundings, unintentionally catching the eye of a few people walking by, all of whom smiled and said ‘good morning’ to the new driver Seanagh sighed and continued eating her breakfast, silently wishing and hoping that her new life at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes wasn’t going to be so bad.

 

After the engineers meeting, in which Jenson had greeted Seanagh with a massive hug and joked that everyone had been asking him about her rather than the new car, Seanagh had decided to stay in its sanctuary for the morning session.

It was almost completely quiet, with the occasional chatter of someone relaying information back to Woking. Seanagh had sat herself at the very back of the room where she was mostly out of the way. She still had a good view of one of the TV monitors and had her radio headset fixed over hear ears, listening in to Jenson’s team radio and all the team’s engineers talking to each other.

“Okay that’s us done for the morning” Jenson’s race engineer spoke before issuing instructions to his driver. The engineer’s truck was filled with relieved sighs and squeaking chairs as everyone left for their lunch break.

“You coming Seanagh?” One of them asked when they noticed that Seanagh was still sat in her chair, hastily scribbling in her notebook.

“Yeah, just a second…” She slid her headset off her ears with one hand while scribbling notes down with the other. When she was finished she slammed the A5 book shut and rested her headset down on the table as she left, trailing the group of engineers as they walked into the motorhome for lunch.

_Grabbed your lunch, with Richard on the top floor_

Seanagh smiled at Vanessa’s text and rushed up the spiral staircases, taking off her coat when she reached the top floor. The space was mainly filled with sofas, armchairs and coffee tables but a couple of white dining tables sat at the back of the room, where Vanessa and Richard where chatting over steaming plates of food.

“Hey” Seanagh smiled at the pair and pulled out a seat next to Vanessa. “Oooh pasta”

“Since it’s your first day on the job we can give the racing driver diet a day off, carbonara’s her favourite” Vanessa turned to Richard and joked that he should be taking notes.

“Careful they’ll think you’re dumping us for Ferrari” Richard joked as everyone tucked into their lunch.

“Fat chance of that happening” Seanagh scoffed as she twirled strands of spaghetti round her fork. As expected the top floor of the motorhome was far quieter than the first two floors, a few people would come upstairs and have a coffee sat in one of the plush chairs before leaving again, throwing a nod and a polite smile in Seanagh’s direction. According to Richard Seanagh was still all anyone could talk about apparently. And that was before she’d even set foot in the car, which she wasn’t doing until tomorrow.

“Ah there she is!” Jenson’s voice boomed across the top floor as he approached the table with someone else following behind him.

“Hey Jenson” Seanagh smiled and pulled out a chair, everyone had long since finished their lunch so they were more than happy to let Jenson join them.

“Oh sit down mate, this is Mikey my PT”

“Hi” Seanagh smiled brightly at Mikey as he nervously sat down and reached over to shake his hand. “Nice to meet you”

“Yeah you too, how you fitting in?”

“Not bad I hope, I spent the morning with the engineers so hopefully that helped” Seanagh sighed and she folded her arms on the table.

“It did, you’re making me look bad” Jenson jibed lightly hitting Seanagh on the shoulder.

“That’s exactly why Martin hired me did he not tell you?” The table burst in to laugher and Jenson put his arm round Seanagh’s shoulders, briefly squeezing her into his hold before letting go. “Another team mate here to make my life hell”

“At least I’m nice about it” Seanagh teased with a smirk that Jenson reciprocated.

“Oh shit… you were meant to be in the garage five minutes ago JB” Mikey frowned looking at his watch. Richard and Jenson both let out a long sigh before pushing out their chairs.

“That means I need to stand at the back of the garage and tweet for the next four hours” Richard huffed, putting on his raincoat. “See you girls later”

“Actually we were thinking of going trackside, maybe sitting on one of the empty grandstands, you know to take notes” Vanessa piped up, looking slightly hopeful that the team would be fine with Seanagh being out of their sight for more than a few minutes.

“Uh…” Richard paused, the instructions Martin had given him running though his head. “I guess… but no interviews if any journos run into you, just keep a low profile and there shouldn’t be any problems” The press officer spoke hurriedly as he followed Jenson and Mikey down the stairs, as soon as they were gone Seanagh and Vanessa were alone in the top floor of the motorhome.

“You’ll thank me later; we can get headsets from the garage right?” Vanessa asked standing up and pulling on her sweatshirt and raincoat.

“Yeah”

“Come on then, let’s go see some F1 cars”

 

You could hear each car approaching almost a minute before it actually made the apex of a corner; the V8 engines really were that loud. Seanagh and Vanessa had found themselves almost at the other side of the circuit, sat in the very front row of a mostly empty grandstand, looking towards one of the circuits more tighter, hairpin style corners that sat right at the end of the back straight.

“I still can’t believe you’re going to be driving one of those tomorrow” Vanessa shook her head in awe as a Sauber and Toro Rosso went past. Seanagh wasn’t listening as she was too busy taking notes on how each car and driver handed each apex of the corner. “Nice to see those notebooks are getting some good use” Seanagh said nothing and hummed as Jenson’s car took the corner cleanly, and resumed scribbling in her notebook.

Vanessa sighed and pulled out her phone, taking some pictures of the track to send home later, and she managed to get Seanagh to stop writing for a few seconds to smile for a few selfies.

“So did you do much this morning?” Seanagh asked during a twenty minute red flag period.

“Not really just chatted with the Finns for a bit, tried to look around the motorhome but got completely lost. I nearly ended up in Martin Whitmarsh’s office twice” Seanagh chuckled at her personal trainer and shook her head with a smile.

“We really made it” Seanagh sighed, looking out across the empty circuit.

“Well you did, I helped” Vanessa shrugged, albeit smugly. “Fancy a cuppa?”

“Definitely” The weather had barely warmed up over the course of the day so far, just enough to dry out the circuit, but it had stayed chilly and mostly grey all day.

The two women quietly left the grandstand and removed their radio headsets, sliding them down so they hung around the back of their neck. After half an hour they found themselves back at the paddock turnstiles, scanning their passes to be allowed back into the valley of oversized motorhomes.

“Some of these would pass for houses you know”

“Yeah… They really didn’t have all this in F3” Seanagh huffed, looking around at the tall makeshift buildings. The paddock was certainly busier than what it had been earlier on. Engineers were moving between garages, engineering trucks and motorhomes, a few journalists and photographers were milling around taking pictures of anyone that looked interesting or somewhat important, and a few drivers were occasionally darting out of the garages for comfort breaks.

“Oh sorry I- Hey! You are the new McLaren driver right?” Suddenly out of nowhere Seanagh found herself face-to-face with Felipe Massa right in the middle of the paddock. He looked at Seanagh not even with a hint of curiosity, and instead with a bright friendly smile.

“Yeah… Seanagh Palmer, it’s nice to meet you” Seanagh held out her hand, fully expecting the Brazilian to shake it. She was caught completely off guard when he shook his head and happily hugged her, chuckling as he did so.

“It’s nice to meet you too. Welcome to Formula 1” He smiled and clapped her on the shoulder. “I’m surprised you’re not driving today”

“No um, I’m in the car tomorrow” Seanagh nervously smiled, completely taken aback by how polite and friendly Felipe was being.

“Ah good, well best of luck. It’s nice to meet you” Felipe waved and headed back into the garage with his cheery grin still stuck on his face. Seanagh and Vanessa stood in awe for a few moments.

“Did he actually hug me or was I hallucinating?” Seanagh asked when she and Vanessa made it back into the motorhome.

“I didn’t know F1 people had it in them to be so friendly” Vanessa whispered as they approached the bar on the ground floor, and ordered themselves two large coffees. They sat down at the nearest available table that had a good view of one of the plasma TV screens. “So… how are you feeling about tomorrow?” Vanessa asked one they’d both had a sip of their coffee.

“Excited, terrified, nervous, like I’ve got the weight of half the planet on my shoulders” Seanagh sighed and firefly buried her face in her hands. “I’ll be a proper F1 driver tomorrow… and the only prep I have is thirty hours in the simulator”

“That and your three junior series titles, five karting championships _and_ your ever meticulous notes. Trust me you’ll be fine” Vanessa leaned forward, trying to reassure her driver the best she could.

“Plus you’ll have me and Vanessa at the back of the garage cheering you on” Richard, who must have been on a coffee break, appeared from a nearby table and sat down. “Didn’t you get third place at the Macau GP too?”

“Somehow” Seanagh huffed with a light laugh. “How they still allow racing round there is beyond me”

“Well, I can safely say that the team’s behind you, we all want Jenson and you to do well this season but it is only testing. You don’t need to pull of any miracles, just some hard work behind the wheel” Richard smiled warmly before taking a sip of his own coffee.

“Thanks guys”

“No problem, that’s what team mates are for right?”


End file.
